Golden Horse Film Festival makes debut in Yilan

Staff writer, with CNA /

Fri, Nov 09, 2012 - Page 3

The 49th Golden Horse Film Festival opened in Yilan for the first time yesterday, featuring 86 films, 15 directors and as many as 20 actors from around the world. Among the entries, Taiwanese films To My Dear Granny (親愛的奶奶), Legend of the T-Dog (命運狗不理) and Unpolitical Romance (水餃幾兩) made their world premieres at the festival, which runs until Nov. 18, the Yilan County Government’s Cultural Affairs Bureau said.

Besides local productions, the festival will offer films from countries including Japan, Germany and India, the bureau said. Visitors to the festival will not only be able to enjoy films, but will also have the chance to meet renowned directors and performers after the screenings, said Cheng Wen-tang (鄭文堂), a Taiwanese director and producer who helped organize the event.

For example, Chu Yu-ning (瞿友寧), the director of the festival’s opening film, To My Dear Granny, and members of his cast yesterday evening fielded questions after the film’s premiere, while Masami Nagasawa from Japan will meet fans after the screening of her work Love Strikes on Nov. 18, Cheng said.

The bureau said a series of events would also be held in Taipei to celebrate the festival ahead of the award presentation ceremony, which will take place on Nov. 24 in Yilan. In related news, academy award-winning Taiwanese director Ang Lee (李安) said on Wednesday he hoped young people in Taiwan’s film industry would benefit from working with his Hollywood crew and cast on the film Life of Pi (少年PI的奇幻漂流).

“I hope the Hollywood experience can take root and blossom here,” Lee said at a ceremony in Taipei prior to a special screening of his new film Life of Pi, which was mostly shot in Taiwan.

Saying that 3,000 people, many of them Taiwanese, were involved in the making of the film, Lee said he was “very proud of Taiwan,” which “has everything.”

“This is the most difficult film I have ever made,” the director of the award-winning Brokeback Mountain (斷背山) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (臥虎藏龍) said.